The Book Job

Neil Gaiman as himself
Andy García as the TweenLit Inc. publisher

"The Book Job" is the sixth episode of the twenty-third season of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 20, 2011. In the episode, Lisa is shocked to discover that all popular young-adult novels are not each written by a single author with any inspiration, but are conceived by book publishing executives through use of market research and ghostwriters to make money. When Homer hears this, he decides to get rich by starting work on a fantasy novel about trolls together with Bart, Principal Skinner, Patty, Moe, Professor Frink, and author Neil Gaiman. Lisa, who does not think writing should be about money, decides to write a novel on her own. However, she is constantly distracted by other things and fails to make any progress on it. After selling their novel to a book publishing executive, the group members later discover that the executive has replaced the trolls with vampires because vampires are more popular. In an attempt to replace this new version with the old before the novel goes into print, they break into the book publishing company's headquarters.

The episode was written by freelancer Dan Vebber, though The Simpsons executive producer Matt Selman received the idea for it. His inspiration came from a magazine article he had read about the book packaging company Alloy Entertainment and its use of ghostwriters. In addition, the episode was inspired by the Ocean's Trilogy, a film series about a group of criminals that heist casinos, and features many elements from it. Actor Andy García, who appears in that series as a casino owner, guest starred in "The Book Job" as the book publishing executive. It also contains several references to and parodies of the Harry Potter and Twilight series, aimed at young adults. The episode was seen by approximately 5.77 million people during its original airing and since then it has received positive reviews from television critics, particularly for its satire of the book publishing industry and for its references to the Ocean's Trilogy. Gaiman, who provided his voice for the episode, has also been praised for his performance.